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lite
MEDI aVAN
To Preserve and Restore Hea lth To Seek The Cause and Cure of Diseases
To Educate Those Who Would Serve Humanity
VOLUME IX. NO. 5 MEDICAL COLLEGE OF VIRGINIA
RlCHMOND, VIRGINIA JUNE, 1956
NUTRICULTURE LABORATORY ON McGUIRE
HALL ANNEX DEDICATED
The new nutricultu re laboratory on the top of McGuire H a ll Annex, made
possible by a gift of $120,000 from the American Tobacco Company, was dedi­cated
on May 10. DR. WILLARD F. LIBBY, commissioner of the United Sta tes
Atomic Energy Commission made the dedicatory address.
I n the opening paragraph of his address Commissioner Libby said, "Medicine
today sta nds at the threshold of a major adva nce- not only a long the lines of
practical appl ications in di agnosis and therapy, but a lso in its basic approaches
to una nswered , fund amental research problems. In the language of the phys i­cists,
the field of medicine is just about ready for a "quantum jump" and i t is
my feeling th a t this will come about through the increased use of isotopica lly
labeled drugs and medicinals."
Dr. Willard F. L ibby, Mr. R upert
Hanmer, Doctor Stepka, and Doctor
Larson in the new laboratory.
In referring
to th e u se ful­ness
of isotope
fa rming, which
is the purpose of the nutriculture labora tory Commissioner
Willard went on to say: " In especia lly designed chambers
Stich as those you have here in this farm we ded ica te today,
plants such as a lfa lfa, soy bea n, buckwheat, rye, foxglove,
poppy, tobacco, et cetera, have been cultured in a radioact ive
carbon dioxide a unosphere so that all of their substance has
been la beled with rad iocarbon atoms in proportions of a few
atoms of carbon-1 4 for every million ordina ry carbon atoms.
These plants have served to produce a number of useful
radio-chemicals."
At this point the reader, if not a sc ientist, is asking,
"What's it a ll about?" Your editor asked Dr. Sidney S.
Negus, professor of biochemistry to te ll us in simple language
just wha t an isotope is and what ca n be expected from "iso­tope
farming." Doctor Negus writes : "Atoms of the same
element like carbon show slight variations in their mass.
These atoms of different weights a re ca lled isotopes. Radio­acti
ve isotopes ca n be prepared by bomba rding stable atoms
with rapidly moving sub-a tomic pa rticles. Elabora te gen­erators
like the cyclotron have been built to accelera te the
movements of such particles to speeds of thousands of miles
a second. Radioactive isotopes can a lso be prepared in what
are ca lled uranium piles.
" Although these isotopes have different weights than their
respective ordi na ry atoms, they behave alik e chemi cally.
Until they came into the picture, however, it was exceed­ingly
difficult and often imposs ible to follow the course of an
important compound th roughout the various tissues of living
organ isrns because biological and chemica l methods were not
sensitive enough. I sotopes, which carry their telltale radio­activity
wherever they go in anima ls a nd plants, are now
revealing new facts about vital processes which heretofore
could not be sludied a t a ll. The clement carbon, for exam­ple,
can be " tagged", incorporated into growing tobacco
plants, and the resu lting tobacco studied in a variety of ways.
As inves tigative tools, radioactive isotopes (and the stab le
kind a lso, like heavy nitrogen ) have been ranked by bio­chemists
a nd others as second in importa nce only to the
President Sanger accepts lab­oratory
from Mr. Hanmer.
microscope in fundamental
resea rch."
Doctor Libby at the close
of hi s address sa id, ' fJ be­lieve
firmly that even though
we had not any other bene­fits
from the splitting of the
atom, isotopes alone would
themselves reward and re ­jJay
us for all of the e ff ort
and funds we have invest­ed
in our atomic enetg,'
project."
Mr. Rupert H anmer, d i­rector
of research for the
Ame ri can Toba cco Com­pany,
" presented" the lab­oratory
to President Sanger
fo llowing the ded ica tion.

lite
MEDI aVAN
To Preserve and Restore Hea lth To Seek The Cause and Cure of Diseases
To Educate Those Who Would Serve Humanity
VOLUME IX. NO. 5 MEDICAL COLLEGE OF VIRGINIA
RlCHMOND, VIRGINIA JUNE, 1956
NUTRICULTURE LABORATORY ON McGUIRE
HALL ANNEX DEDICATED
The new nutricultu re laboratory on the top of McGuire H a ll Annex, made
possible by a gift of $120,000 from the American Tobacco Company, was dedi­cated
on May 10. DR. WILLARD F. LIBBY, commissioner of the United Sta tes
Atomic Energy Commission made the dedicatory address.
I n the opening paragraph of his address Commissioner Libby said, "Medicine
today sta nds at the threshold of a major adva nce- not only a long the lines of
practical appl ications in di agnosis and therapy, but a lso in its basic approaches
to una nswered , fund amental research problems. In the language of the phys i­cists,
the field of medicine is just about ready for a "quantum jump" and i t is
my feeling th a t this will come about through the increased use of isotopica lly
labeled drugs and medicinals."
Dr. Willard F. L ibby, Mr. R upert
Hanmer, Doctor Stepka, and Doctor
Larson in the new laboratory.
In referring
to th e u se ful­ness
of isotope
fa rming, which
is the purpose of the nutriculture labora tory Commissioner
Willard went on to say: " In especia lly designed chambers
Stich as those you have here in this farm we ded ica te today,
plants such as a lfa lfa, soy bea n, buckwheat, rye, foxglove,
poppy, tobacco, et cetera, have been cultured in a radioact ive
carbon dioxide a unosphere so that all of their substance has
been la beled with rad iocarbon atoms in proportions of a few
atoms of carbon-1 4 for every million ordina ry carbon atoms.
These plants have served to produce a number of useful
radio-chemicals."
At this point the reader, if not a sc ientist, is asking,
"What's it a ll about?" Your editor asked Dr. Sidney S.
Negus, professor of biochemistry to te ll us in simple language
just wha t an isotope is and what ca n be expected from "iso­tope
farming." Doctor Negus writes : "Atoms of the same
element like carbon show slight variations in their mass.
These atoms of different weights a re ca lled isotopes. Radio­acti
ve isotopes ca n be prepared by bomba rding stable atoms
with rapidly moving sub-a tomic pa rticles. Elabora te gen­erators
like the cyclotron have been built to accelera te the
movements of such particles to speeds of thousands of miles
a second. Radioactive isotopes can a lso be prepared in what
are ca lled uranium piles.
" Although these isotopes have different weights than their
respective ordi na ry atoms, they behave alik e chemi cally.
Until they came into the picture, however, it was exceed­ingly
difficult and often imposs ible to follow the course of an
important compound th roughout the various tissues of living
organ isrns because biological and chemica l methods were not
sensitive enough. I sotopes, which carry their telltale radio­activity
wherever they go in anima ls a nd plants, are now
revealing new facts about vital processes which heretofore
could not be sludied a t a ll. The clement carbon, for exam­ple,
can be " tagged", incorporated into growing tobacco
plants, and the resu lting tobacco studied in a variety of ways.
As inves tigative tools, radioactive isotopes (and the stab le
kind a lso, like heavy nitrogen ) have been ranked by bio­chemists
a nd others as second in importa nce only to the
President Sanger accepts lab­oratory
from Mr. Hanmer.
microscope in fundamental
resea rch."
Doctor Libby at the close
of hi s address sa id, ' fJ be­lieve
firmly that even though
we had not any other bene­fits
from the splitting of the
atom, isotopes alone would
themselves reward and re ­jJay
us for all of the e ff ort
and funds we have invest­ed
in our atomic enetg,'
project."
Mr. Rupert H anmer, d i­rector
of research for the
Ame ri can Toba cco Com­pany,
" presented" the lab­oratory
to President Sanger
fo llowing the ded ica tion.